Damian Thompson is Editor of Telegraph Blogs and a columnist for the Daily Telegraph. He was once described by The Church Times as a "blood-crazed ferret". He is on Twitter as HolySmoke. His latest book is The Fix: How addiction is taking over your world. He also writes about classical music for The Spectator.

Pope Francis: we need 'clear doctrine' to emphasise that marriage is for life. (Meanwhile, that phone call…)

“The holiness and indissolubility of Christian matrimony, often disintegrating under tremendous pressure from the secular world, must be deepened by clear doctrine and supported by the witness of committed married couples,” Pope Francis said.

“Christian matrimony is a lifelong covenant of love between one man and one woman; it entails real sacrifices in order to turn away from illusory notions of sexual freedom and in order to foster conjugal fidelity.”

Textbook Catholic teaching, in other words. But – and I'm sorry if I sound obsessed by this – the small matter of the phone call isn't going to go away. To quote John Allen, the English-speaking world's most authoritative Vatican expert:

Since his election, Pope Francis has displayed a generally unerring PR touch. This week, however, he stepped on his own story, creating a distraction from the impending canonisations of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II with a phone call that stoked confusion about where he stands on divorced and remarried Catholics.